Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stacking apparatus and a feeding apparatus capable of feeding sheets of a plurality of sizes.
Description of the Related Art
Some image forming apparatuses such as a copying machine and printer have an arrangement which includes a sheet storage unit and a feeding unit such as a feeding roller for feeding sheets stored in the sheet storage unit, and feeds a sheet stored in the sheet storage unit to an image forming unit by the feeding unit. In general, in order to feed the sheet of the sheet storage unit stably, side limiting members for limiting the edges of a sheet in a widthwise direction are formed
In a feeding apparatus of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2016-128344, a plurality of side limiting members are arranged to be able to correspond to various sheet sizes. At this time, positions when the side limiting members are opened at a maximum and when they are opened at a minimum are made equal between a plurality of side limiting plates.
On the other hand, in the recent printing market, needs for performing printing on elongated paper sheets longer than regular-size paper sheets such as A3 and A4 are increasing. Elongated paper sheets are used for a book cover, facing pages of a catalogue, POP advertisement, and the like.
A feeding apparatus corresponding to elongated paper sheets is configured to limit plain paper sheets such as A3 and A4 in the widthwise direction by the first side limiting member, and limit elongated paper sheets in the widthwise direction by the first and second side limiting members. A stacking tray for stacking sheets is also provided. The stacking tray includes notch portions to which the side limiting members are to be fitted so that the side limiting members can move in accordance with the width of a sheet.
Note that in the feeding apparatus corresponding to elongated paper sheets, a minimum width capable of widthwise alignment by the first side limiting member needs to correspond to, for example, up to a small sheet of a postcard size or the like. On the other hand, the second side limiting member should limit only elongated paper sheets, and thus only needs to correspond to, for example, up to an A4-width size.
However, if the minimum width capable of widthwise alignment by the plurality of side limiting members is arranged in the same manner, an opening by the notch portion to which the second side limiting member is to move may open more than necessary. Note that the feeding apparatus corresponding to elongated paper sheets uses plain paper sheets frequently. Accordingly, while the opening of the first limiting member is often covered with a sheet, the opening of the second limiting member is often open. Therefore, a user may damage the apparatus by dropping a foreign substance from the openings when, for example, replenishing sheets.